Last week I shared our need to get connected to God, the only way to experience an abundant, fruitful life is to get connected to God. We get connected to God through Jesus. The Scripture passage we used last week was Jesus’ words, “you cannot bear fruit unless you remain (abide) in me.” The first step of getting connected with Jesus is to overcome the barrier between us, which is sin. Through Jesus God has provided a way for us to be forgiven of our sins, but being forgiven doesn’t mean we are connected to God or Jesus. There are means God has provided for us to stay connected to Him. One way we stay connected to God (which I focused on last week) is to be connected with God’s family, the church. God expects us to live out our Christian faith within our church family. We stay connected to God by learning about God’s word, reading and studying the Bible. We stay connected to God by obeying God’s commands, Jesus said, “you are my friends if you do what I command.” We also stay connected to God through prayer.
What is prayer? This may seem like a pretty obvious answer for most of us here, but I don’t take anything for granted anymore. One time I was interviewing people in a local shopping mall in Lexington, KY for my evangelism class in seminary. One of the many questions I asked was, “what are your thoughts about prayer?” One particular gentleman I interviewed responded first that prayer was talking with God, but after thinking about it, he changed his mind and said “actually, prayer was more like reflecting, thinking about, or meditating upon the day ahead.” Prayer had nothing to do with God, it was more of a way to focus. This way alarming to me since this guy I was interviewing was the son of a pastor and seminary professor. So I don’t take anything for granted anymore.
Biblically speaking, prayer is simply having a conversation with God, or spending time in God’s presence. If we are going to remain connected to God, and enjoy a fruitful life from this relationship with Jesus (God), we must communicate with him. Could you imagine claiming to have a best friend that you haven’t communicated with in 20 years? How can someone have a close relationship with you if they don’t know what is going on in your life, your joys, your hurts, your struggles? Although God knows every detail of our life, he wants to talk with us, and the way we relate to God is through prayer. Typically we think of prayer as asking God to do something, but prayer is first and foremost a conversation with God.
Most of us probably realize the importance of prayer and yet prayer seems to be one of the easiest areas to overlook in our life. I don’t know about you, but even as a pastor I find prayer difficult sometimes. I can get easily distracted. I find it difficult to make the time. I sometimes wonder if I am doing it the right way, am I getting the words right. Perhaps we don’t know what to say (Rom. 8:26). Sometimes prayer feels like more of a chore, one more thing on my schedule, than a joy of being with God. Take out the trash, do the dishes, and oh yeah pray. It is easy to get discouraged with prayer because we have not seen any answers. Perhaps praying feels more like talking to the ceiling than to God. This week I came across a quote from one of the great writers on prayer in the 20th century, Thomas Merton. Merton writes:
“But let us be convinced of the fact that (when it comes to prayer) we will never be anything else but beginners all our life!”
- Thomas Merton
I find comfort in knowing a guy who was considered to be an expert on prayer even admits to being a beginner. Rather than feeling guilty about our inadequacies in prayer, we should be courageous like Jesus’ disciples and boldly ask Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Let us learn from the Master. After being with Jesus and witnessing his prayer life, his disciples realized that they were missing something. Can you imagine being one of Jesus’ disciples, and comparing your own prayers with Jesus? Talk about feeling inadequate. On one particular occasion after being with Jesus while he was praying, one of the disciples finally gathered the courage enough to ask Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John [the Baptist] taught his disciples.”
Beginning today and over the next six weeks we are asking Jesus the same thing, in fact that can be our first prayer to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.” We recognize that we are all just beginners in prayer, and we need to learn from Jesus how to connect to God in a deeper way through prayer. We need to learn how to delight in spending time with God, so we can see God work in our life and in the lives of those we pray for.
The Prayer Pattern of Jesus –
Before we get into Jesus’ teaching on prayer, I want us to look at Jesus’ model of prayer. What was it about Jesus’ life of prayer that the disciples needed to learn?
1. Jesus prayed frequently and in solitary places.
Luke 5:16 says “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” As busy as Jesus was in his ministry Jesus prayed frequently. Jesus always seemed to have a crowd of people around who needed healing, desired to hear his teaching, and of course there were the disciples he was training too. And yet in the midst of all that need, Jesus frequently got away from it all and spent time in prayer. We don’t know how frequent is frequent, was it every day, twice a day, three times a day? We don’t know, all we know is that Jesus spent significant amounts of time with his Father.
When Jesus prayed he often withdrew to a solitary place, or lonely place. In other words, a place where there was no one but God. Sometimes it was the top of a mountain, or in a garden, but it was away from people. No people begging for healing, not even any disciples. Jesus made it a priority to get away from the hustle and bustle to talk with his Father.
In our fast paced society with cell phones, pagers, wireless email (I just saw a commercial for this yesterday) so you can get your email any where at any time, it seems we are available to everyone at almost any time. Everyone that is...but God.
How often do you get away from the distractions of the world to be alone with God? No cell phone, pager, no radio or television playing in the background, no family, just you and God. When will you make time to get away to be with God? Jesus created time and space to meet with God.
I know it is sometimes hard to find space, especially for mothers with children at home. Susanna Wesley, the mother of John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church, had something like 14 kids, when she wanted to spend time alone with God, she would literally take her dress and pull it over her head. I’m not kidding. This was a signal to her children that she was spending time with God, and they better not bother her. I guess you have to make space wherever you can.
What solitary place can you pray without distractions? I have a room upstairs with a particular chair which I go. Amy does as well. I know friends with a prayer room, closet, or even a prayer wall or specially designated place in the house. Jesus liked to be outside in nature, which makes sense since he created it. Like Jesus, perhaps you could find someplace outside, or a trail to walk (weather permitting of course).
2. Jesus’ prayed powerful prayers
There was a second thing we read about which the disciples saw modeled in Jesus prayer life. When Jesus prayed, miraculous things happened. Out of his time with God, things happened. It was during or shortly after times of prayer that some of the most significant events occurred in Jesus’ ministry. At Jesus’ baptism Luke’s gospel account records this:
"When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased (Luke 3:21-22)."
Notice that it was not only after baptism, but also after his prayer that the Holy Spirit descended upon him, and God the Father spoke from heaven, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
Later in his ministry a similar thing happened when he was on a mountain with his three closest disciples, Peter, James, and John.
“As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning (Luke 9:29).”
This change of appearance which we call the transfiguration occurred in response to his prayer. Jesus’ three disciples were able to see him for who he truly was in his full glory.
On yet another occasion Jesus had a crowd of thousands around him, he was given two fish and five loaves of bread by a boy. Jesus prayed by giving thanks to God, and he proceeded to hand out baskets and baskets of food until everyone had their fill.
Lest you think, ‘well that’s Jesus, of course he could do those things.’ Listen to what Jesus said:
"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father(NIV John 14:12)."
The power Jesus had came not from within his own human frame but from the presence of the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that is in every believer, and it came from the Father’s answer to prayer.
Many times we underestimate the power of prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit in today’s world. We often get easily discouraged because we do not see any immediate earth shattering miraculous answers. The person with cancer we pray for isn’t healed, or the marriage we have prayed for isn’t mended, people who are far from God don’t seem to return. When we don’t see the results we hope for, it is easy to give up, but as Jesus reminds us that we cannot give up praying, and that we must pray in boldness and persistence if it is a just cause, we must keep asking because it will be given to you, keep seeking and you will find, and keep knocking because the door will be opened.
The illustration Jesus used was a man getting up at midnight and went to his neighbors house to wake him up to get three loaves of bread because he didn’t have any for his guest. To us this seems pretty rude, but in a middle eastern Jewish culture which prided itself on hospitality, the rudeness was from the neighbor who refused to hand over the bread until he persisted. Although the neighbor initially said no, he eventually conceded in order to keep his integrity. Jesus’ point was, if a human neighbor is willing to do that, how much more will God respond to our needs if we ask. Of course God is going to give you good things if you ask, particularly the gift of the Holy Spirit. We must pray in faith believing God is going to do powerful things if we ask and ask with persistence.
John Wesley once said, "God does nothing but in answer to prayer.” Think about that for a second, in fact write that down somewhere. What if God did nothing but in answer to our prayers? How much would God get done? Prayer is essential for God to act in our world today.
Whatever the reason for the disciples asking Jesus to teach them to pray, Jesus decided to teach them how to pray, and he used a form for prayer which we call the Lord’s Prayer.
Lord’s Prayer as a Model Prayer
Jesus modeled prayer and he taught prayer. His response to his disciples on their request for his teaching on prayer was a passage we are quite familiar with, He said to his disciples, “When you pray say. ’Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation. ’"
Jesus’ introductory course on prayer was to pray what we call the Lord’s prayer.
[Mumorous Skit on the Lord’s Prayer]
One of the dangers in prayer is that we just say them without any thought. Jesus gave us a personal powerful prayer to pray in the Lord’s prayer, but often we just say it without any understanding or meaning. We just say it as our duty.
Over the next six weeks we are going unpack the Lord’s Prayer and allow Jesus to teach us what it means to have a personal, powerful prayer life by following the format of the his primary teaching on the Lord’s prayer. In Matthew’s gospel Jesus reveals this prayer not only as a way to prayer but a model for prayer, “this is how you should pray,” not just a word for word, but also to use it as a model for our prayers to conform with Jesus’. I believe in order for us to be truly connected to God and experience the fullness of life he wants to offer us and our church we need to people of prayer.
